Comparative analysis of quality indicators of aviation kerosine, biofuels and their mixtures

Modern trends of civil aviation development indicate the need to improve fuel efficiency and environmental friendliness of the utilized fuels. The use of conventional jet fuel is meeting to a lesser degree the promising requirements concerning environmental friendliness at a constantly rising price for it. Apart from that, oil reserves are limited. According to many experts, the solution to the growing problems with oil fuels can be application of alternative types of aviation fuel. A number of companies around the world, together with aircraft manufacturers under the significant state support, are actively developing new types of fuel. At the moment the most widespread biofuels consisting of bioethanol are obtained from various plant and animal sources. Alternative fuels should not be inferior to petroleum fuels in its operational properties. A possible transition to them should not require significant costs for the modernization of aircraft and facilities of ground aviation fuel supply. Therefore, an urgent task is to compare the main indicators of the quality of oil fuels, biofuels and their mixtures to assess the possibility of using biofuels on aircraft. A comparative analysis was carried out on some quality indicators. Afterwards the comments were given on the impact of changes of these quality indicators on the performance properties of the fuels. It is shown that according to some quality indicators, biofuels under research have the advantages over oil ones. The relevance of comprehensive study of the performance properties of biofuels is obvious. The improvement of oil fuels and their comprehensive study have been under way for more than 60 years. Biofuels are just beginning their life, so it is reasonable to conduct thorough research on their use in aviation.

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